Poetic Justice

By Quashana Foster

Is an open mic, really an open mic?  Do you have to know someone to get an opportunity to share your poetry?  Poems are poems are poems: generally speaking, they are all birthed through the creative process it takes to bring an idea, thought or experience to life.  The finished product rolls of the performer’s tongue or dances across the writer’s page.  Is every poem worth hearing?  If one writes a poem, have they earned the right to perform it?  It would depend on who you ask.  

At poetry sets around the world, virgin’s to the mic, may not get their chance to expose their work to an audience.  This issue is rarely discussed.  It is often heard in quiet conversations between closet poets and their confidants.  We call them open mics, but is it at times a show that features specific seasoned or shocking poets?  At some shows the same poets perform; while onlookers hope to eventually get their chance to grace the stage.  When they get their moment in the spotlight, if they don’t deliver a bona fide spitfire performance that brings ahs, co-signing and applause, they are cast into the pit designated for ‘terrible performers.’  

Question: are we looking at the content or the entertainment?  Poetry is becoming big business nowadays.  A poet can attain local, national and even international success and stardom.  What about those who write unpopular poetry, whose views are not entertaining, but valid nonetheless.  What about the underdog?  Where do they go?  It has been said that poets are the muses of society.  Poets and the work they create inspire us to do better and to be better.  Yet, it seems that the poetry community is tightly woven to include a select group of people who are ordained as ministers of the spoken word.  And if your not considered “hot”, you may find yourself abruptly leaving the sanctuary without the nourishment you need.

How can a poet grow in their performance if they are not given the chance to perform and be mentored by those who are seasoned?  What’s a poet to do?  Some create their own shows, or perform at shows that aren’t specifically created for poetry.  Others keep writing, and publish books and don’t’ perform, some continue to stay in the closet.  Could it be their fear that stops them for performing?  Is it their lack of passion for the craft?  Is it their embarrassment of a performance that gone wrong? Are they shut out?

These questions were presented over the course of years to a variety of poets.  After all the research, it became clear, that one is born a poet.  Poets cannot be manufactured.  There isn’t any authenticity in that.  After speaking with a full-time seasoned poet, the advice was simply this: “If you write poetry, you are a poet, period.  Nothing can change that.  New poets and performers have to push through.  Stand on the stage and release it, no matter what.  At some point someone, somewhere will hear you.”  The goal of most poets is to free themselves and/or liberate others.  Out of the entire body of work a poet creates, it only takes one poem, one line, or one word to touch one person.  The status of a poet in the poetry community is not as important as a poet’s ability to change the world, one poem, one line one word, spoken to one person at a time.